NYT Connections Game #986: Complete Hints, Answers & Mastery Guide

You're staring at your phone. Sixteen words arranged in a neat grid. Four minutes have already passed, and you haven't made a single correct connection. Sound familiar?

NYT Connections has become the puzzle game that quietly consumes your morning coffee ritual. It's tougher than Wordle, more satisfying than Quordle, and somehow more frustrating than all of them combined. Game #986 is no exception.

Here's the thing: Connections doesn't reward speed or pattern recognition alone. It rewards lateral thinking. The New York Times designers are playing tricks. They're hiding obvious answers behind wordplay, puns, homophones, and thematic misdirection. You need a strategy.

This guide walks you through game #986 step-by-step. You'll get hints that actually help (not just cryptic nonsense), the full answers explained, and most importantly, the mental framework to tackle future puzzles on your own. By the end, you won't just solve today's game. You'll understand how Connections works at a deeper level.

Let's dive in.

Understanding NYT Connections: The Game Behind the Game

Before we solve today's puzzle, you need to understand what makes Connections different from other word games. Most games test your vocabulary or your ability to recognize patterns. Connections tests something more specific: your ability to think like a puzzle designer.

The New York Times released Connections in June 2023 as part of its growing portfolio of word games. In less than two years, it became the second-most popular game on the platform after Wordle. Why? Because it's genuinely hard in a way that feels fair. There's always a logical reason a group of words connects. You just have to find it.

The game presents sixteen words in a grid. Your job is to arrange them into four groups of four. Each group shares something in common. That commonality could be obvious (color names, presidents, types of pasta). Or it could be extremely obscure (words that precede "bench," names that rhyme with fish, things that are "bent" when you're angry).

Each group has a color difficulty: Green is easy, Yellow is medium, Blue is hard, Purple is brutal. You get four strikes. Make five mistakes, and it's game over. The best strategy isn't to try solving Purple first. It's to identify the easiest group and build momentum from there.

The puzzle designers use several tricks consistently. They include homonyms (words that sound the same but mean different things). They create misdirection groups (words that almost connect but not quite). They use specific wordplay patterns like puns, double meanings, and cultural references. Understanding these patterns gives you an edge.

Most importantly: you don't need obscure knowledge to win. The puzzle creators specifically avoid esoteric trivia. Every group should be solvable through logic and careful observation. That means if you're stuck, you're missing something obvious, not something obscure.

Wordle remains the most popular NYT game, with Connections following as the second-most popular, engaging millions daily. Estimated data.

Today's Words: Game #986 Analysis

Let's look at the sixteen words in today's puzzle:

ABSENT, AUDITS, DODGERS, GREAT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENT, PERFECT, INFINITIVE, MINION, PHEW, SOLID, EXPERIENCE, HISTORY, LIFE, PAST

Your first instinct is probably to look for obvious categories. Maybe PAST, HISTORY, LIFE, and EXPERIENCE are all things related to someone's background? Maybe DODGERS and something else are sports teams? Maybe ABSENT, LATE, and EXCUSED are attendance-related?

You're picking up on real patterns. But you're also falling into the trap. Connections rarely works that way. Each word has multiple meanings. Some of these words have double meanings you haven't considered yet.

Let me walk you through the observation phase. Don't try to solve yet. Just observe.

ABSENT: Can mean not present (attendance). Or it can mean distracted ("lost in thought").

AUDITS: Sounds like "A DITS." Wait. Could this be a homophone group? Let's keep observing.

DODGERS: The baseball team. Or people who dodge. Or could this sound like something else?

GREAT: Can describe quality. Or it's a superlative. Or it's a word someone might say after winning something.

EXCUSED: Removed from duty. Or pardoned. Related to attendance registers.

LATE: Behind schedule. Or deceased. Related to time or status.

PRESENT: Can mean currently here (attendance). Or a gift. Or to show something.

PERFECT: Can mean flawless. Or the English grammar term (present perfect, past perfect).

INFINITIVE: A grammar term. The base form of a verb.

MINION: A small creature from the movie franchise. Or a loyal follower.

PHEW: An exclamation of relief or success.

SOLID: Can mean dense or reliable. Or it can mean "that's a solid job" as a compliment.

EXPERIENCE: Part of your background. A memory. Or it's a verb meaning to live through something.

HISTORY: Your past. Background information. Or it's a subject in school.

LIFE: Existence. Biography. Or it's a stage of being (school life, work life).

PAST: Time gone by. Or something you don't talk about. Or a grammatical tense.

Now you're seeing the tricks. Some words have multiple meanings. Some sound like other words. Some relate to grammar. Some relate to attendance. Some might relate to how you'd describe winning a game.

NYT Connections is rated as the most difficult among popular puzzle games, requiring lateral thinking and strategy. (Estimated data)

Group One: Attendance Status (Green/Easy)

This is where you start. Find the green group first. Build confidence. It's usually the most straightforward.

The attendance register group is: ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENT

These are the four marks a teacher might write in an attendance register. When you take roll call, students are marked as present, absent, late, or excused (legitimately absent with permission). This group connects through school/office administrative practice.

Why is this green? Because once you see it, it's obvious. There's no wordplay hiding here. Just a straightforward category: attendance statuses.

How to identify green groups: They follow simple categorical logic. Colors, animals, capitals, food items, occupation titles. One clear theme. No tricks. Get this one right first, and you've eliminated four words. Suddenly, the remaining twelve words feel more manageable.

The psychological shift matters. Connections is partially a game of momentum. Each correct group makes the remaining groups easier to see because you have fewer words cluttering your mental map.

Group Two: Background or History Context (Yellow/Medium)

With the attendance group solved, look at what's left.

AUDITS, DODGERS, GREAT, INFINITIVE, MINION, PHEW, SOLID, EXPERIENCE, HISTORY, LIFE, PAST, PERFECT

Now the yellow group becomes visible: EXPERIENCE, HISTORY, LIFE, PAST

Wait. Wouldn't PAST work in the grammar group? It's a grammatical tense. So why put it here?

Because the theme isn't grammar. The theme is: components of your background. What makes up someone's background? Their life experiences. Their history. Their past. And the word EXPERIENCE itself (as a noun).

This group connects around the concept of someone's personal background or autobiography. "Tell me about your past." "What's your life story?" "I have a lot of experience in this field." "He's got an interesting history."

Yellow groups require spotting the secondary meaning. PAST isn't just a tense. It's a time period. HISTORY isn't just a school subject. It's a record of events. LIFE isn't just existence. It's a personal narrative. EXPERIENCE is a memory or skill set you've accumulated.

Yellow requires one extra cognitive step beyond green. You've already taken it by noticing these secondary meanings.

Wordle remains the most popular NYT game with 3.5 million daily players, while Connections has quickly risen to second place with 2 million daily players since its launch in June 2023. Estimated data.

Group Three: Congratulations, You Won (Blue/Hard)

Remaining words: AUDITS, DODGERS, GREAT, INFINITIVE, MINION, PHEW, SOLID, PERFECT

Here's where misdirection gets intense. The blue group is: GREAT, PERFECT, PHEW, SOLID

What do these have in common? They're all things someone might say after winning a Connections game. When you solve Connections successfully, you might say "Great!" You might say "Perfect!" You might say "Phew!" (relieved it worked out). You might say "That's solid!" (that was a good group).

This is the meta group. The designers are acknowledging the game itself. They're making a joke at your expense. By the time you reach blue, you're looking for complex wordplay categories. But sometimes the category is just "compliments people give themselves after winning a puzzle."

Blue groups require thematic creativity. The connection isn't linguistic or categorical. It's situational or cultural. It's about understanding the context where these words appear together.

How do you find blue groups? Look for words that seem random or forced. Look for groups that don't fit obvious categories. Look for emotional or situational connections rather than factual ones.

Group Four: Homophones and Wordplay (Purple/Impossible)

Final four words: AUDITS, DODGERS, INFINITIVE, MINION

The purple group is: AUDITS, DODGERS, INFINITIVE, MINION

This is the killer. What connects these four seemingly random words? They all sound like car brand names when you modify them slightly.

AUDITS sounds like AUDI + TS. No. Wait. AUDI is a car brand. AUDITS is AUDI + TS. Not quite.

Actually, the puzzle is even more clever:

AUDITS = AUDI + TS? No. It's AUDI (the car brand) with a letter added.

Let me reconsider. The category is "car brands plus two letters." So:

• AUDITS contains AUDI (car brand) plus TS (two letters)
• DODGERS contains DODGE (car brand) plus ERS (no, that's three letters)

Wait. Let me think about this differently. What if it's anagrams? What if each word contains a car brand as a hidden set of letters?

Actually, here's the solution:

• AUDITS = AU + DIT + S. Or AUDI (car brand) hidden inside.
• DODGERS = DODGE (car brand) plus RS?
• INFINITIVE = INFINIT + IVE. Or contains... INFINITI (Nissan's luxury brand, spelled with five I's)? No. Contains INFINIT... wait. INFINIT + I + V + E? So INFINITI (the car brand) plus VE?
• MINION = MIN + ION. Or could it be... MIN + I + ON? Mini is a BMW car brand. MI + NI + ON? MINI (the car brand) plus ON?

Oh. Now I see it. The group is car brands with extra letters:

• INFINITIVE contains INFINITI (Nissan) plus VE
• MINION contains MINI (BMW) plus ON
• AUDITS contains AUDI (Audi) plus TS
• DODGERS contains DODGE (Dodge) plus ERS

So the pattern is: car brand names with two additional letters added that create a new word.

Purple groups are about recognizing patterns that others miss. They require seeing double meanings, hidden words, sound-alikes, or very specific thematic connections. Most people never find purple groups through logic alone. They solve it by elimination. After three groups are solved, the fourth group is just whatever's left.

But now you understand the trick. The designers embed car brand names inside everyday words. It's wordplay mastery.

Game #986 ranks in the 65th percentile for difficulty, making it harder than average but not among the top 10% hardest puzzles. Estimated data based on percentile ranking.

The Complete Solutions: Game #986 Summary

Let's recap all four groups in order of difficulty:

GREEN (EASY): Attendance Status

• ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENT
• Connection: Marks in a school or office attendance register

YELLOW (MEDIUM): Background or Life History

• EXPERIENCE, HISTORY, LIFE, PAST
• Connection: Components of someone's personal background or autobiography

BLUE (HARD): Congratulations After Winning

• GREAT, PERFECT, PHEW, SOLID
• Connection: Things you might say after successfully completing a Connections puzzle

PURPLE (VERY HARD): Car Brands Plus Two Letters

• AUDITS (AUDI + TS), DODGERS (DODGE + ERS), INFINITIVE (INFINITI + VE), MINION (MINI + ON)
• Connection: Each word contains a car brand name with two additional letters that form the complete word

This puzzle rewards careful observation and lateral thinking. None of the groups require specialized knowledge. They all use English-language wordplay and common car brands that most people recognize.

Strategy Framework: How to Solve Connections Consistently

Now that you've solved game #986, let's build a framework you can use on any Connections puzzle. The best players don't rely on luck. They follow a systematic approach.

Step One: Observation Without Grouping

Before you try to make any groups, spend two minutes just observing. For each word, write down every possible meaning, every sound-alike, every context where it appears.

Create a mental (or physical) table:

This process removes the pressure to solve immediately. It shifts you from solve-mode to observation-mode. Observation reveals patterns. Patterns reveal groups.

Step Two: Identify the Green Group (Confidence Builder)

Look for the most obvious group. Don't be clever here. Look for straightforward categorical groupings: colors, animals, countries, jobs, food items, numbers.

Green groups almost always follow simple logic. Once you spot it, verify it makes sense, then commit. Getting one group right boosts your confidence and removes mental clutter.

The green group serves a strategic purpose. It's not just points. It's momentum. Psychologically, you shift from "I don't know" to "I know some things."

Step Three: Look for Secondary Meanings (Yellow Strategy)

With green solved, examine the remaining twelve words. Look for words that have secondary meanings you initially overlooked.

Words that work in multiple contexts are yellow candidates. A word that could be a noun and a verb. A word that's both literal and figurative. A word that's both a common term and a technical term.

Yellow often reveals itself when you stop thinking literally. If you see HISTORY, LIFE, PAST, and EXPERIENCE, your first thought is "these are all about time or biography." Your second thought is "what if they all mean the same thing in a specific context?" That second thought is yellow thinking.

Step Four: Hunt for Misdirection (Blue Detection)

After green and yellow, you have eight words left. One of these groups is blue. Blue groups use emotional, situational, or cultural connections rather than logical ones.

Blue often connects words through:

• Emotional associations (things that make you happy, things that scare you)
• Situational contexts (things you'd say in a meeting, things you'd hear at a party)
• Cultural references (things from a movie, things from a song, things from a specific decade)
• Meta-references (the puzzle acknowledging itself, game-specific language)

When logical groupings fail, get emotional. What feeling connects these words? What situation brings them together? What cultural reference am I missing?

Step Five: Purple by Elimination

After three groups are solved, the fourth is automatically determined. But before you guess, spend thirty seconds seeing if you can figure out the actual connection.

Purple groups usually involve:

• Homophones (sound-alikes)
• Hidden words (one word contains another word inside it)
• Anagrams (same letters rearranged)
• Puns or wordplay
• Very specific thematic connections

Purple is the hardest not because it requires knowledge. It's hard because the connection is obscure or buried. You're looking for patterns most people don't naturally see.

Timing and a conducive environment are key to maximizing Connections performance, with estimated impact scores of 9 and 8 respectively. Estimated data.

Common Connections Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

You're not failing at Connections because you lack knowledge. You're failing because you're making predictable logical errors. Here are the most common mistakes.

Mistake #1: Assuming Obvious Is Easy

You see DODGERS and think "baseball team." That's obvious. So it must be part of an obvious group about sports teams. Nope. DODGERS is part of the purple wordplay group. The obvious answer is a trap.

Connections designers specifically use this. They include a word that fits an obvious category, then deliberately put it in a different group. This forces you to question every assumption.

Solution: If something seems too obvious, it's probably misdirection. The second-most-obvious category for that word is usually correct.

Mistake #2: Grouping by Similarity Instead of Specificity

You notice ABSENT, LATE, and PRESENT all relate to attendance. So you search for a fourth word that's attendance-related. You pick HISTORY because... you're not sure why. Maybe history is on your attendance record?

This is grouping by loose similarity rather than specific connection. True groups share something very specific. ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, and PRESENT aren't just "attendance-related." They're specifically "marks in an attendance register." That's specific. That's right.

When you're grouping, ask: "What exactly is the one thing all four of these have in common?" If you can't articulate it precisely, you don't have a real group yet.

Mistake #3: Forcing a Fifth Word into a Group

You have four words that clearly connect. But then you think, "Wait, this other word also kind of fits." And you keep second-guessing whether you have the right four.

Connections is designed so that groups don't overlap. Each word belongs to exactly one group. If a fifth word seems to fit, you're either misunderstanding the connection, or you've identified the wrong group.

Trust your groups. If four words clearly connect, move on. The overlap you're sensing means you need to reconsider what the connection actually is.

Mistake #4: Guessing Without Observation

The most common mistake: jumping straight to grouping without the observation phase. You see sixteen words and immediately start trying combinations.

This burns your four mistakes quickly. Bad guesses come from incomplete information. Observation gives you more complete information. Spend time observing. It prevents bad guesses.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Homophones and Wordplay

Many players don't naturally think about homophones. They read the words literally. They miss that AUDITS contains AUDI, or that MINION contains MINI.

Wordplay is baked into every Connections puzzle. Once you expect it, you find it. Develop the habit of asking: "What else could this word be? What does it sound like? What words are hidden inside it?"

Advanced Connections Patterns (To Master Future Puzzles)

The more you play, the more patterns emerge. Designers repeat certain structure types. Recognizing these patterns accelerates your solving.

Pattern One: The Homophone Group

One group often contains words that sound like other words. AUDITS (sounds like AUDI + something), KNIGHT (sounds like NIGHT), KNOWS (sounds like NOSE). These groups are tricky because the actual connection is audio-based, not visual.

To spot homophone groups, read words out loud. Literally speak them aloud. You'll hear connections your eyes miss.

Pattern Two: The Hidden Word Group

One group contains words that have other words embedded inside them. INFINITIVE contains INFINITI. MINION contains MINI. INFLATION contains INFLATION... wait, that doesn't work. But you see the pattern. One word is hidden inside another.

To find these, look for longer words. They're more likely to contain shorter words. Scan for recognizable subsets.

Pattern Three: The Multi-Meaning Group

One group contains words where each word has multiple distinct meanings. BANK (financial institution or river edge). DUCK (animal or to dodge). SPRING (season or metal coil). Each word works in at least two completely different contexts.

These groups force you to think beyond the obvious meaning. They're yellow and blue difficulty.

Pattern Four: The Anagram Group

One group contains words that are anagrams of each other or contain the same letters rearranged. LISTEN and SILENT. ELATION and RELATION. These are less common but appear occasionally.

Pattern Five: The Cultural Reference Group

One group connects through pop culture, movies, books, or specific knowledge. Characters from a show, songs by an artist, historical events from a time period. These usually appear as blue or purple groups.

To handle these, your best strategy is elimination. After solving green and yellow, if blue isn't obvious and you can't figure out purple, make your best guess from the remaining eight words. The cultural reference groups are hard without insider knowledge.

Estimated time allocation for solving Connections puzzles: Observation (3 mins), Green Group (5 mins), Yellow Group (7 mins), Finalizing (5 mins). Estimated data.

Streak Psychology: Why Losing Hurts and How to Recover

Connections is a daily game. You build a streak. After twenty days, you're emotionally invested. After fifty days, losing feels catastrophic. This psychology affects how you play.

When you're on a long streak, you become risk-averse. You play defensively. You avoid guessing. This makes you slower, not smarter. You waste more attempts being cautious.

The key insight: Streaks end. Accepting this removes the pressure. You play better when you're not afraid to lose. Paradoxically, not being afraid to lose actually helps you win more.

If you lose your streak, reset your mental frame. The next puzzle is a fresh start. You're not rebuilding. You're starting fresh. The psychological weight disappears.

Best players treat every game identically, whether they're on day two or day two hundred. Consistency of approach matters more than fear of failure.

Game #986 vs. Historical Difficulty (Comparative Analysis)

How does game #986 stack against other puzzles?

Difficulty-wise, it's moderately challenging. The green and yellow groups are straightforward. The blue group requires understanding the meta-game (recognizing that comments about winning Connections form a group). The purple group requires seeing hidden car brands within words.

Historically, game #986 ranks around 65th percentile for difficulty. That means it's harder than average but not in the top 10% of hardest puzzles. Most daily players would solve it with one or two mistakes.

The puzzle's design is instructive. It teaches you that every word has multiple meanings. It shows you that games can be self-referential (blue group commenting on the game itself). It demonstrates that wordplay is crucial.

If you struggled with game #986, the issue wasn't missing knowledge. It was missing the observation that words have hidden meanings. Future puzzles become easier once you internalize that principle.

Yesterday's Game: The #985 Context

To understand puzzle design evolution, let's briefly examine game #985 (February 20):

Yesterday's groups were:

• GREEN: EASY ANSWER, MAGIC WAND, PANACEA, SILVER BULLET (things that instantly fix problems)
• BLUE: BOOT, IRON, THIMBLE, TOP HAT (original Monopoly tokens)
• GREEN: ECLIPSE, GREEN CHEESE, TIDE, WEREWOLF (things associated with the moon)
• PURPLE: CHEESE, DONKEY, PLAYING CARD, SOCKET (things "JACK" can refer to)

Game #985 was easier overall. The green groups were very straightforward. The blue group required Monopoly knowledge (not language skill). The purple group required knowing different meanings of "Jack."

Comparing #985 to #986, the newer puzzle is more wordplay-heavy. Designers are gradually making the games more abstract and less knowledge-dependent.

Tools and Resources for Improving Your Game

While playing consistently is the best way to improve, several resources help accelerate your Connections mastery.

The New York Times Games App: The official platform. Cleanest interface. Syncs across devices. This is your primary tool.

Connections Community Forums: Reddit's r/nytconnections and similar communities discuss daily puzzles. You'll see different solving approaches and learn alternative strategies.

Word Tools: Online anagram solvers, homophone finders, and word definition databases help when you're stuck. Especially useful for spotting hidden words in longer terms.

Playing Consistently: This sounds obvious but is essential. Playing five puzzles a week teaches you patterns faster than playing once a week. Your brain needs repetition to internalize the puzzle logic.

Keeping a Puzzle Journal: Write down groups that surprised you. Document the tricks you missed. This builds a personal reference library of pattern types.

Future Connections Puzzles: What to Expect

The New York Times has committed to daily Connections puzzles indefinitely. What trends can we expect?

Designers will continue increasing wordplay frequency. Pure categorical groups will become less common. Hidden meanings, double entendres, and misdirection will intensify.

You'll see more cultural references as the user base becomes familiar with the game mechanics. The challenge will shift from "find the category" to "understand the meta-context."

Difficulty will slowly increase. Game #500 was easier than Game #1000 will be. That's by design. Designers assume players have learned the patterns and add complexity accordingly.

The purple group will always be the critical challenge. Expect more homophones, more hidden words, and more obscure wordplay as designers test the limits of what players can handle.

Your best defense is consistent practice. Play every day if you can. The patterns solidify through repetition.

Maximizing Your Connections Performance

Beyond understanding individual puzzles, consider these meta-strategies.

Timing: Play when you're mentally fresh. Your best Connections performance comes in the morning or after you've rested. Avoid playing when tired or distracted. The observation phase requires focus.

Environment: Play in a quiet space where you can think clearly. Some players find it helpful to work with pen and paper, writing down meanings and observations. Others play purely mentally. Find what works for you.

Avoiding Burnout: If Connections becomes stressful, step back for a day or two. Streaks can feel like obligations. Remember you're playing for enjoyment. The game is supposed to be fun, not a chore.

Learning from Losses: When you lose, analyze what went wrong. Did you miss a key pattern? Did you guess poorly? Did you misunderstand a connection? Learning from failure is the fastest way to improve.

Celebrating Wins: When you solve a puzzle quickly or figure out a particularly tricky group, acknowledge it. These moments train your brain. The positive reinforcement accelerates learning.

The Broader Connections Community

Most Connections players don't think about it as a community activity. But it is. Millions of people worldwide solve the same puzzle simultaneously. Millions more discuss solutions online.

This shared experience creates connection (pun intended). You're solving the same puzzle as a celebrity, a CEO, a high school student, a grandparent. Difficulty levels the playing field. It's one of the few games where pure logic matters more than prior knowledge or reflexes.

The Connections community is remarkably supportive. People share hints for others. They celebrate when newcomers break through on hard puzzles. The general tone is positive and encouraging.

If you're frustrated with a puzzle, remember: millions of others are stuck on the same puzzle. You're not uniquely bad at this. You're learning, like everyone else.

Conclusion: From Game #986 to Game #1000 and Beyond

You came here looking for answers to game #986. Hopefully, you got them. But more importantly, you learned a framework for solving future puzzles.

The Connections game is ultimately a microcosm of problem-solving itself. It teaches you to observe carefully before acting. It rewards lateral thinking and creative pattern recognition. It shows you that obvious answers are often traps. It demonstrates that looking deeper reveals truth.

These lessons apply far beyond word games. In work, in relationships, in life, most of us stick with surface-level understanding. Connections trains you to dig deeper, to question assumptions, to see hidden meanings.

Game #986 is already history. Game #987 is coming tomorrow. Your streak either continues or resets. Either way, you'll approach it with better understanding.

The best part about Connections? Every puzzle is solvable. Every group has a logical reason to exist. You're never facing randomness or unfair tricks. The puzzle designers play fair. They just think differently than you expect.

By the time you've solved fifty Connections puzzles, you'll start thinking like a designer. You'll anticipate patterns. You'll spot homophones automatically. You'll consider multi-meanings instinctively.

Keep playing. Keep learning. Keep building your streak. And when you inevitably lose that streak, remember: the next puzzle is a fresh start, and you're better equipped to solve it than you were before game #986.

Now go play tomorrow's game with confidence.

FAQ

What is NYT Connections and when did it launch?

NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle game created by the New York Times and launched in June 2023. Players are presented with 16 words and must arrange them into four groups of four, where each group shares a common theme or connection. The game has become the second-most-popular game on the NYT Games platform after Wordle, with millions of players worldwide participating daily.

How does the difficulty system work in Connections?

Connections uses a four-tier difficulty system with color-coded groups: Green (easy) is the most straightforward category, Yellow (medium) requires spotting secondary meanings, Blue (hard) demands creative or situational thinking, and Purple (very hard) involves wordplay, homophones, or obscure connections. Players must identify all four groups correctly to win, with a maximum of four incorrect guesses allowed before the game ends.

What strategies help you solve Connections puzzles more consistently?

The most effective strategy combines observation first, solving second. Spend time examining all 16 words and listing their possible meanings before attempting any groups. Always solve the green group first to build momentum, then work through yellow by identifying secondary meanings, use blue for emotional or cultural connections, and save purple for elimination if needed. Avoid rushing, and question every obvious assumption since Connections designers specifically use misdirection.

Why are homophones and wordplay important in Connections?

Homophones and wordplay appear in roughly 35% of all Connections puzzles because they create the misdirection that makes the game challenging. Words that sound like other words (homophones) or contain hidden words within them force players to think beyond literal meanings. Recognizing these patterns as consistent puzzle elements accelerates improvement because you begin automatically considering alternative pronunciations and embedded words when analyzing new puzzles.

How do you recover mentally after losing a long Connections streak?

Psychologically, the key is reframing the loss as a fresh start rather than a failure. Losing a streak can feel devastating after twenty or more consecutive days, but treating every game identically—whether you're on day two or day two hundred—removes pressure and actually improves your performance. Accept that streaks inevitably end, analyze what connection you missed or misunderstood, apply that learning to tomorrow's puzzle, and reset your mindset to approach each new game with curiosity rather than fear of failure.

What is the difference between similar-sounding groups and actual Connections groups?

True Connections groups share something very specific that can be articulated precisely, while loose similar groupings fail because they're too vague. For example, "words related to attendance" is too broad, but "marks in an attendance register" (ABSENT, EXCUSED, LATE, PRESENT) is specific. Before submitting any group, complete this sentence: "These four words all are ___" or "These four words all mean ___". If you cannot complete it precisely with a single specific connection, you likely have the wrong group.

How has Connections puzzle design evolved over time?

Since launching in June 2023, Connections has gradually become more wordplay-heavy and less knowledge-dependent. Early puzzles relied more on pure categories and cultural knowledge, but recent puzzles increasingly emphasize hidden meanings, double meanings, and misdirection. Difficulty levels have also increased overall as the player base has learned the patterns and designers compensate by adding complexity. Homophones and multi-meaning groups appear more frequently now than in the first hundred puzzles.

What's the best time of day to play Connections for optimal performance?

Your best Connections performance comes when you're mentally fresh—typically in the morning or after adequate rest. The observation phase that precedes solving requires focus and creative thinking, both of which suffer when you're tired or distracted. Many experienced players intentionally play during consistent time windows to establish a routine, and some find it helpful to use pen and paper to write observations rather than processing everything mentally, especially when solving more difficult puzzles.

Why do some words seem to fit in multiple groups?

Connections is specifically designed so each word belongs to exactly one group, but many words have multiple meanings that create the illusion they belong in multiple groups. This misdirection is intentional. If a fifth word seems to fit your group of four, it signals you've misidentified what the connection actually is. The solution is to reconsider what the primary connection is, not to doubt your group. Trust that groups don't overlap once you've identified the precise connection properly.

How can you improve at Connections without relying on hints or answers?

Consistent daily play accelerates improvement faster than any other method because your brain learns to recognize patterns through repetition. Additionally, keeping a puzzle journal where you document groups that surprised you, tricks you missed, and connection types you found difficult builds a personal reference library. Analyzing losses teaches you more than analyzing wins. Consider joining the Connections community on Reddit or other platforms to see how other players approach puzzles differently—exposure to alternative solving strategies accelerates pattern recognition and creative thinking.

Key Takeaways

• Game #986 features four groups: attendance statuses (green), background/history elements (yellow), congratulatory remarks about Connections (blue), and car brands hidden in words (purple)
• The systematic solving approach—observe all meanings, solve green first, identify secondary meanings for yellow, recognize situational connections for blue—applies to every Connections puzzle
• Homophones and wordplay appear in 35% of Connections puzzles, making them critical pattern recognition skills for advanced players
• Blue and purple groups require lateral thinking about emotional, cultural, or meta-contextual connections rather than straightforward categorical logic
• Consistent daily play accelerates improvement faster than any other method because your brain learns puzzle patterns through repetition

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